Florida bishops ask clemency in death-penalty case

The Catholic bishops of Florida have appealed for clemency for a convicted murderer who faces execution on September 1.

The bishops intervened in the case of Manuel Valle, who shot and killed one police officer and severely wounded another in 1978.

“Governor, we ask you to stop state-sanctioned killing,” the Florida bishops said in a letter to Governor Rick Scott. The bishops said that they could “affirm the right and duty of the State to assure public safety and punish the guilty by incarceration,” but saw no role for capital punishment.

Correction: Due to an editorial lapse, an early version of this report quoted the Florida bishops as opposing "state-sanctioned murder." The bishops' official statement actually refers to "state-sanctioned killing." We regret the error.

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This article seems to misquote the Florida bishops' letter to Governor Scott. The text of the letter as released by the Florida Catholic Conference reads, "Governor, we ask you to stop state sanctioned killing by sparing the life of Manuel Valle, allowing him to serve out his sentence in prison for the rest of his natural life." It does not at any point refer to capital punishment as "murder."
http://www.flacathconf.org/newsreleases/110823ValleExecution.pdf

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